I am writing this letter in response to Belmont's state legislative representative Michael Sylvia's letter of Sept. 3 requesting five taxpayers to step up and demand accountability.

Mr. Sylvia is a Free Stater who moved to Belmont six months before he was elected. A Free Stater is a person who does not believe in our present form of government. He believes that town governments should run things without any form of state involvement, which means each town would have to establish its own laws in order to operate. Their plan was to bring in 20,000 Free Staters into the state because our population is not large and have them run for public office in order to implement their political views.

Mr. Sylvia, as a representative for the town of Belmont, is on the state roster that identifies who represents each town in our state. If you go to this roster you will find Mr. Sylvia's name and that is all you will find, no address, phone number, e-mail address and no biographies to explain who he is and what he stands for and how he will promote good present-day government as we know it. How can anyone in Belmont or the state contact him? The answer is, you can't.

Mr. Sylvia voted as a member of the Belknap County Delegation against providing health insurance benefits to the county employees for 2014, even though they are entitled for that benefit and have a contract with the county. I have spoken to a number of county employees and they said that they have not had any increase in income for the past three years.

He and the county delegation have created the problem and Mr. Sylvia now puts the blame on the commissioners who have an obligation to the county employees. I would like to make a recommendation for him, he should sign the petition himself and find four like-minded individuals to go along with it and see where it goes.

To the voters of Belmont: You voted for Mr. Sylvia not knowing who or what he was about and because he put his name on the Republican side of the ballot. The consequence of that vote will have an impact on a number of individuals who are usually on the lower end of the income scale.

I write this letter in support of a tireless supporter of our community and the democratic process, Jane Alden. Jane is a truly caring individual who has shown through her tireless efforts her willingness to donate her life to the goals of unconditional support and assistance her fellow citizens no matter their age, sex, socio-economic and gender.

She has shown her strong support to our young population, aging population, veteran population and ever diversifying population. Jane has the acute ability to see the core of a problem, present her opinion, seek the input of others, reach out to other community members if a compromise is necessary for the effective meeting of the community's needs and provide strong and unqualified leadership.

I have meandered through the budget systems of the town of Tilton and SAU 59 at times confused, amused, frustrated, and proud with the system. This has been a strong learning experience and Jane has provided much appreciated mentoring so that I could survive these systems. I have concurrently participated in the democratic election process of these ever-expanding systems, and have appreciated Jane's kind and caring support in my victories and defeat.

I am careful in my praise and support in the election process. I examine a candidate closely. As a result of this scrutiny, I would strongly urge your support of Jane Alden for State Representative on Nov. 4.

I would end this endorsement with a challenge and invitation for all the community members of Belknap County District 4 to show their Yankee heritage by exercising their right to vote.

The Executive Committee (of the Belknap County Convention), by not fully funding the contractual obligations of Belknap County, have forced the commissioners into taking one of three options going forward:

1. Break the union contracts that were negotiated in good faith, and subject the county to lawsuits.

2. Be held in contempt for ignoring the court ordered injunction that prevents the commissioners from transferring funds between budget lines.

3. Terminate employees, leaving the county critically understaffed, and damaging morale to the point where they will have a difficult time finding high quality applicants to fill future job openings. Who will want to work for the county if they believe that their wages and benefits are under constant attack by some members on the County Convention?

Regardless of whether you believe the employees should kick in more toward their health insurance plan or not, the Executive Committee's strong-arm tactics are wrong. It is the commissioners' job to negotiate the details of the labor contracts. For the extremists on the county convention to try to override the commissioners' authority in an effort to save taxpayers money, will likely wind up costing the county more in lawsuits than it saves on insurance contributions.

It is time to stop this foolishness — the Executive Committee should pay the county's contractual obligations and not hold employees' earned benefits hostage. The voters can bring an end to this come Tuesday, by careful selection of candidates for county commissioner, and the state representatives who will sit on the county convention.

After reading recent letters from some of the staff at Belknap County nursing home, I came to the conclusion that union representatives told them to back Dave Pollak for Belknap County Commissioner, as he would then be beholden to them. I will again remind those of you sympathetic to the plight of the nursing home employees, their package of salary, insurance and pension is higher than any other nursing facility in Belknap County.

Mr. Pollak and others have written letters stating what a wonderful person he is but at this time we don't need Mr. Wonderful. We need someone who is pragmatic and will first and foremost look out for the taxpayers of the county when making monetary decisions. I have always had a problem with someone with an academic background becoming involved in politics as they usually look at things in a theoretical way rather than a practical way.

At the end of September, the Laconia City Council adopted a resolution that specified that a prison be built in the $15 million-$20 million dollar range as that was what the city could manage and stay within the tax cap and still fund necessities. Apparently Dave Pollak only reads his letters as a few days later he wrote that he had a plan that would cost $25 million. Hey, what's $5-$10 million between friends.

I would like to remind the voters/taxpayers of Laconia, no matter what political party you belong to, that you will be bearing the brunt of the cost of the jail when it is built.

In another letter that Dave Pollak wrote he stated that he felt the commissioners were just doing their job and the county convention was overstepping its bounds when it reined in the commission. Seeing as how a judge on three different occasions sided with the convention, I have to assume Dave Pollak has no respect for the law.

You have a choice when you go to the polls, you can keep the status quo which is what you will get if you vote for Dave Pollak or you can vote for Dave DeVoy and get a commissioner who will do what's best for everyone concerned, which includes the taxpayers. I am not a resident of Dave DeVoy's district, but the commission makes decisions that affect all of Belknap County, so its entire makeup is a concern for all of us.Dave SchwotzerMeredith

Walt Havenstein is focused on making New Hampshire a better place to live and raise a family. Walt is concentrating on how to fix New Hampshire and restore our economy while Maggie Hassan focuses on her next run for higher political office, rather than accepting responsibility for the economy that has put New Hampshire dead last in New England on her watch.

Maggie's ads are indicative of what she has accomplished in her two years since being elected Governor ... nothing. It is impossible for her to have positive ads pointing to her accomplishments for New Hampshire's citizens over the past two years. There are none. So, she fabricates false ads against Walt.

If you ask anyone who worked at BAE, they will tell you that Walt was an extremely successful CEO and wonderful boss. He created 1,500 technical jobs in New Hampshire while he was at BAE. Ironically, that is the same number of technical jobs that have been lost under the Democrats in the past few years. Walt partnered with educational institutions while he was at BAE to improve New Hampshire students' ability to compete in the marketplace. When Walt arrived at BAE, none of the 150 engineers hired annually came from New Hampshire schools. The partnership with UNH produced engineers who have been consistently hired by BAE. Walt partnered with FIRST to create robotics competitions in high schools and to give recognition to those students who concentrate on technical accomplishments.

As governor, Walt Havenstein will utilize his leadership skills from his military career as Naval Academy graduate to a Marine colonel, as the successful CEO of the largest corporation in New Hampshire, and as the chair of FIRST to overhaul all of New Hampshire's state departments to be more efficient and to create business opportunities in New Hampshire.